The Recess Digest

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some MPs are rarely seen in the Commons. Others can’t seem to stay away from the chamber. So what happens in those 45 days when the Palace of Westminster shuts up shop? This week on the podcast, former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Labour peer Baroness Armstrong join Cath Haddon and Alice Lilly of the IFG to reveal just how switched off parliamentarians can be on their summer break. Stay tuned to the Inside Briefing feed for more podcasts during the summer recess, including a 6-part series on what it’s like to be a government minister. Produced by Alex Rees at Podmasters for the Institute of Government Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this episode of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:15.5	I'm Catherine Hadden, today's podcast's host.
0:18.4	By the time you listen to this podcast, the House of Commons will have shut up
0:21.7	shop for the summer. Yes, recess is here. MPs have left the Palace of Westminster and are not
0:27.6	scheduled to return until the 4th of September, a full 45 days without sitting in Parliament.
0:33.3	So what will they be getting up to? What does the summer away from SW1 bring for our MPs?
0:38.7	What happens when that summer break is cut short? And do they ever get a proper holiday?
0:43.9	To explore these questions and more, I'm joined by two veterans of Parliament who have clocked up decades in the House of Commons and the Lords, and plenty of recesses along the way.
0:54.4	Hillary Armstrong, Baroness Armstrong, was the Labour MP for North West Durham from
0:58.9	1987 to 2010, and she held a number of ministerial roles, including as Tony Blair's
1:04.9	Chief Whip from 2001 to 2006. Hello, Hillary.
1:08.7	Hello there. And Dominic Grieve was the Conservative MP for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 and served as
1:16.2	the Attorney General under David Cameron. Hi, Dominic.
1:19.0	Good afternoon.
1:20.1	And we're also joined by my IFG colleague and Parliamentary Watcher-in-Chief Alice Lily.
1:25.2	Hi, Alice.
1:26.0	Hi, Kath.
1:26.8	So let's start with where we are at the time of
1:29.0	recording, the last days, hours of Parliament before MPs flee for the summer. Dominic,
1:34.6	what's the mood like in the Commons as recess approaches? Is there a bit of a end-of-term feel to it?
1:40.8	Yes, there is. There's a tendency for some MPs to hold parties in their rooms. There's a tendency for people to congregate on the terrace if the weather's good. And there is an end-of-term feel, particularly because this, the summer, the end of the summer term is always one where there's quite a lot of
2:03.4	social engagements which are linked to one's parliamentary activity. So the coming together of
	...

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